1980-81 OPC Ken Dryden

  After winning a fourth Stanley Cup in four years with the Montreal Canadiens,  Ken Dryden abruptly retired.  You have to wonder what could have been.  Dryden, and the Canadiens could have won a few more Cups.  Perhaps there would have never been a New York Islanders dynasty and the torch would pass from the Canadiens directly to the Edmonton Oilers.  Dryden would have a few more cards produced and he'd likely swap his iconic mask for the combo mask, that was introduced to the NHL by his brother, Dave Dryden.  Before retiring, Ken did test the mask combo, but only during practices.  Here's was a 1980-81 OPC Ken Dryden could have looked like.

1980-81 OPC Ken Dryden

2012-13 Limited Box Break

  I recently opened a box/pack of 2012-13 Limited.  1 box = 1 pack = 7 cards.  Let's look at the goods.

 

   I don't like the red background on the regular base cards.  I prefer the colour scheme of the Silver parallels.  In fact, I really like the silver parallels.

  The Back to the Future card features Zach Kassian on the front.  Jakob Silfverberg has gotten out to a good start with his new team, the Ducks. 

  The star of the pack is the Jonathan Quick Silver Monikers.  Not great, but not horrible, but nothing here for my PC.

1981-82 OPC Bill Ranford + Bonus Ranford

  It's been a while since I posted so here's two retro Bill Ranford cards.  I stumbled across a picture on eBay.  I have never seen pictures of Bill Ranford in an Oilers uniform while wearing a cage.  I am guessing that this picture was taken on November 9, 1988.  For one, the Oilers only played two road games against the New Jersey Devils that season, and two, #23 for the New Jersey Devils, Bruce Driver, only played in 27 games that season, and only one at home versus the Oilers.  Ranford must have donned a mask later in the season.  He has one on for his 1989-90 Panini Sticker.

  For some reason, I felt the picture scream 81-82 OPC.

  Afterwards, I felt it'd be better as an 88-89 OPC, is if it was from the update set.

  Since I'm using his picture, I may as well provide a link to his auction.  Guy has tons of 3x5 pics from the 80s. 

One Star, One Sheet: Vincent Damphousse

Vincent Damphousse

432 Goals
1205 Points
1993 Stanley Cup

  Vincent Damphousse was drafted 6th overall in the 1986 Entry Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs.  He is the highest scoring player from that draft year, and arguably had best career, with the exception of Brian Leetch, who was drafted 9th overall.

  Damphousse immediately became a regular on the Leafs.  In 1989-90 Damphousse finished second on the team with 94 points.  The following season he led the team in points with 73, which was 34 points higher than the next Leaf.  Damphousse also made waves around the NHL scoring four goals and earning MVP honours at the All-Star game in 1991.

  The Leafs, desperate for goaltending help, sent Damphousee to the Edmonton Oilers in a package that brought Grant Fuhr and Glen Anderson to Toronto.  Damphousse led the Oilers with 89 points but the Oilers felt a need to toughen up, and sent Damphousse to the Montreal Canadiens in a deal for Shayne Corson.

  Damphousse enjoyed the best years of his career in Montreal.  In his first season, 1992-93, with the Canadiens, he led the team in scoring during the regular season and during the play-offs.  1993 was Damphousse's first and only Stanley Cup victory.  Damphousse scored 90+ points three times while with the Canadiens, including a career high of 97 in 1992-93.  Damphousse also served as team captain from 1996 until he was traded in 1999 to the San Jose Sharks.

  By this time in his career, Damphousse was no longer a point a game player.  His best season with the Sharks was his first full season, 1999-2000, when he scored 70 points.  A free agent in 2004, he signed with the Colorado Avalanche, but announced his retirement after the 2004-05 season was canceled.

  Damphousse was a solid, but unspectacular, star throughout the 1990s.  He never topped 50 goals, 100 points or make the top ten in goals, assists or points. While he never played with any top tier scoring talent, he played with a lot of tier two and three players. 
  On a side note, I love how the 2003 Pacific Exclusives Gold scanned.  That set was notorious for coming out of the back in bad condition,  a lot of chipping on the corners and edges.

74-75 OPC WHA Customs

   I decided to do a few 74-75 OPC WHA style cards.  I believe the guy on eBay I been bitching about, took these off another eBayer.  So I decided to try my hand at them. Pretty simple, other than trying to get the right radius for the rounded corners.

  Gary Simmons is the all-time winningest NHL goalie to be born in Prince Edward Island. He has 30 more wins than the second best goalie, Drew McIntyre, who has zero.

  Jacques Plante will be best remembered for his time with the Montreal Canadiens and for being the first goalie to regularly wear a mask in the NHL.  He did spend 2 1/2 seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Plante led the league in GAA during his first season with the Leafs in 1970-71.  Plante had a 1.88 GAA, the other Leafs goalies combined for a 3.39 GAA.

  Cesare Maniago made a name for himself playing for the Minesota North Stars.  He joined the North Stars for their debut season in 1967.  Before the 1967 expansion, Maniago played briefly with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers.  He would retire as a Vancouver Canuck.

Amazing Drawing: Jacques Plante

  I wish I could draw like this, or at the very least, buy a drawing like this.  I first thought it was a photograph when I saw it while googling for Jacque Plante pictures.  It's done by Jean-Francois Verreault.  He posted work-in-progress pics of it as well on deviantart.

Another eBay rip-off from my blog; Same Seller

  I first found this seller back in November of 2012.  He was taking the pictures of the 88-89 OPC Tribute set I was posting to my blog and then selling them as his own on eBay.  Some of the listings were the exact same picture he lifted off my blog but most were ones were he replaced the pictures but kept the framework.  Some of his work was quite sloppy.  The shadow of the name box was often cropped very poorly. 
  I contacted him, he denied it.  I sent him a link to my blog with proof, he never replied.
  So I started putting a Blargh copymark across the pictures I posted of new custom cards.  It seemed to work, until I did a search on eBay and found this from the same seller as before.

  Which looks like it may be an exact copy of this picture from a post in October of 2012..

  Okay, before I call this eBay seller a piece of shit, let's try to verify it.  When I did my 1980s OPC, I did the entire template.  I didn't scan a Canadiens card from the set, cut out the picture and put in a new one.  I do all the lines and shapes to make the boxes to be as close to the original card as possible.  So odds of his lines being the exact same as mine are highly unlikely.  Ditto for the font and text.  The picture below is his card layered on top of mine (without the Blargh mark), with his set at 50% opacity.

 

  Gee, what a surprise, it's identical.  What are the odds of that?  But how did he get a copy without the big Blargh across the top?  Even if he photoshopped it, the lines wouldn't match exactly the same.  And why remove the OPC symbol on the bottom?  I did originally post the picture without the Blargh mark on it but added it a few weeks later after finding the eBay copies of my pictures.  If he saved a copy back in October of 2012, then why wait until now to post it on eBay?
  I did some checking and I found out that Blogger stores all your pictures you uploaded in a Picasso album.  I am not sure if someone can access it, but the original 83-84 Roy, without the big Blargh, was still online in the Picasso album.  I have gone through and deleted anything I don't want copied.  While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, if any one makes money off me ripping off OPC, then it should be me